Writing in the Atlantic today, Shane Cashman gives us a brief history of air-conditioning and gives us an idea of the ecological and environmental costs that this modern-day comfort brings.
Besides being the main driver of summer brownouts and blackouts, Cashman says that, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, "[R]esidential and commercial buildings used more than 500 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity for air-conditioning in 2015 alone. That's almost 20 percent of the total electricity used in buildings, amounting to $60 billion in electricity costs annually." Cashman may well have added that air-conditioning has changed history and changed our geography as well. Decades ago, air-conditioning was inefficient and expensive. With the development of affordable cooling, places that were inhospitable for long stretches of the year became air-conditioned oases. In Phoenix, Las Vegas, and other areas of the Southwest where only a few hardy individuals did their best to endure the simmering summers, houses now sprang up, all of them with their central air units attached to their sides. When these more efficient technologies were introduced, many environmentalists embraced them as ways to reduce energy consumption and pollution. They have, ironically, exacerbated our problem. Writer David Owen gives a spot-on analysis and explainer of this in his concise book The Conundrum. I believe that many of us working on climate change should take a look at what he has to say.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorPaul Hormick is the founder of South Park Climate Solutions. He sees climate change as one of our central concerns, for ecologies as well as societies. He holds a master's degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Johns Hopkins University |